Lou Jacobi's performance is by far the best thing about this movie - but that's another story.
The fact that this movie is based on a musical is fascinating. For some reason Wilder jettisoned the music but retained the "flavor" of the musical. The sets and the supporting characters seem exactly like they are in a musical - especially the brute who is MacLaine's first pimp, supplanted by Lemmon. He seems like a baritone about to break into song at any moment - especially when he bellows to Irma from the street. The scenes in the bar all seem like out-takes from Guys and Dolls! The ambiance of the film is very peculiar.
For a Billy Wilder film, it seems very slow. Plenty of lines are thrown away and fail to hit their mark (such as MacLaine's line, "Oh you won't get cold," when she takes Lemmon into her apartment for the first time, which is delivered flatly without any saucy double entendre.) At other times the dialog seems to kind of drag - very un-Wilder-like. To me the scene when Lemmon removes his clothes while MacLaine smokes in bed doesn't strike either a sexy or a poignant tone. MacLaine's hunched-over posture is NOT a sexy pose. And Lemmon's covering the windows with newspaper demonstrates his naiveté and bashfulness, but his preoccupation with it kind of robs the scene of poignancy. It just kind of plods, and there is very little dialog to help it move along. Wilder also seems to rely on much more slapstick (as opposed to just plain "sight" gags) in this movie.
MacLaine is acting in a kind of light drama, while Lemmon is acting in a farce. To me the two never really mesh, so the movie never hits its intended mark. It is a pity that Marilyn Monroe, Wilder's first choice for Irma, was not available. She would have been a far better comic foil than MacLaine - just check out Some Like It Hot to bear me out.
MacLaine has moments when she seems rather wistful. Otherwise, she seems pretty much like a weary (and world-weary) "working girl." She doesn't deliver enough wistfulness to be charming, nor enough weariness to inspire pathos. I was left feeling pretty ambivalent about her character: she's neither comical nor sympathetic. Based on such an ambivalent central character the film, itself, never jells for me. It can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a light, poignant drama. It doesn't balance the comic and the poignant elements very well.
As an actor, Jack Lemmon is very hit-or-miss with me. He often seems more manic than comic. That is how he strikes me in Irma la Douce. His one note caricature of the British Lord wears pretty thin. In fact that is also the big plot hole in this film. He takes to pimping because he cannot find work. Once he starts working like a slave, there is no need for the Lord X ruse anymore. Of course that artifice is really the entire movie. So the whole contrivance seems like the emperor's new clothes to me.
The "assumed" life Lemmon's Lord X constructs out of classic British literature is all good fun, but by maintaining the focus on Lemmon's delivery rather than have MacLaine react in some appreciable way for the camera, all of that shtick is pretty wasted to me. All the while Lemmon is rambling on about Gunga Din or whatever, MacLaine responds verbally but just keeps on playing solitaire. Wasted opportunity for some good comic reactions in both dialog and facial expressions!
Because this film moves slowly and lacks snappy dialog delivery, it seems more contrived than comical. For a contrivance that works, watch "Some Like It Hot" or a great little gem like "One, Two, Three."
The fact that this movie is based on a musical is fascinating. For some reason Wilder jettisoned the music but retained the "flavor" of the musical. The sets and the supporting characters seem exactly like they are in a musical - especially the brute who is MacLaine's first pimp, supplanted by Lemmon. He seems like a baritone about to break into song at any moment - especially when he bellows to Irma from the street. The scenes in the bar all seem like out-takes from Guys and Dolls! The ambiance of the film is very peculiar.
For a Billy Wilder film, it seems very slow. Plenty of lines are thrown away and fail to hit their mark (such as MacLaine's line, "Oh you won't get cold," when she takes Lemmon into her apartment for the first time, which is delivered flatly without any saucy double entendre.) At other times the dialog seems to kind of drag - very un-Wilder-like. To me the scene when Lemmon removes his clothes while MacLaine smokes in bed doesn't strike either a sexy or a poignant tone. MacLaine's hunched-over posture is NOT a sexy pose. And Lemmon's covering the windows with newspaper demonstrates his naiveté and bashfulness, but his preoccupation with it kind of robs the scene of poignancy. It just kind of plods, and there is very little dialog to help it move along. Wilder also seems to rely on much more slapstick (as opposed to just plain "sight" gags) in this movie.
MacLaine is acting in a kind of light drama, while Lemmon is acting in a farce. To me the two never really mesh, so the movie never hits its intended mark. It is a pity that Marilyn Monroe, Wilder's first choice for Irma, was not available. She would have been a far better comic foil than MacLaine - just check out Some Like It Hot to bear me out.
MacLaine has moments when she seems rather wistful. Otherwise, she seems pretty much like a weary (and world-weary) "working girl." She doesn't deliver enough wistfulness to be charming, nor enough weariness to inspire pathos. I was left feeling pretty ambivalent about her character: she's neither comical nor sympathetic. Based on such an ambivalent central character the film, itself, never jells for me. It can't seem to decide whether it wants to be a comedy or a light, poignant drama. It doesn't balance the comic and the poignant elements very well.
As an actor, Jack Lemmon is very hit-or-miss with me. He often seems more manic than comic. That is how he strikes me in Irma la Douce. His one note caricature of the British Lord wears pretty thin. In fact that is also the big plot hole in this film. He takes to pimping because he cannot find work. Once he starts working like a slave, there is no need for the Lord X ruse anymore. Of course that artifice is really the entire movie. So the whole contrivance seems like the emperor's new clothes to me.
The "assumed" life Lemmon's Lord X constructs out of classic British literature is all good fun, but by maintaining the focus on Lemmon's delivery rather than have MacLaine react in some appreciable way for the camera, all of that shtick is pretty wasted to me. All the while Lemmon is rambling on about Gunga Din or whatever, MacLaine responds verbally but just keeps on playing solitaire. Wasted opportunity for some good comic reactions in both dialog and facial expressions!
Because this film moves slowly and lacks snappy dialog delivery, it seems more contrived than comical. For a contrivance that works, watch "Some Like It Hot" or a great little gem like "One, Two, Three."